Keilani's Story
by love-of-music
Summary: Story of a princess that was sent to a poor couple when she was born. Later, the poor couple weren't able to pay their taxes which caused them to send the girl to her stepmother who treats her like a slave.
1. Chapter 1

Princess or a Pauper?

The castle was bustling with servants and scullery maids rushing back and forth retrieving the necessary items needed for the birth of the country of Laos's new prince or princess.

"Where is the doctor!" the queen yelled in agony. She screamed in pain. The servants dabbed her forehead wiping off the beads of sweat.

The servants scurried around the room in worry, "Your highness, the doctor is right here, you just have to calm down a bit to let the doctor help you,"

"Don't you dare tell me what to do!" the queen yelped in rage.

The doctor soothed the queen, "Your majesty, the baby is just about to come out, just hold on a bit longer." The queen finally shouted her last yelp and everything was quiet.

The doctor picked up the new born baby and held it up to examine it, "It's a girl." Everyone let out a breath of sadness.

The queen held out her hands and held the new princess and soaked in every last detail of the baby.

The door opened and the King walked in, "Where is my little boy?"

Everyone looked up at him with sad eyes, "Your highness, I'm sorry to inform you of this, but it is a girl." The King had fire blazing in his eyes as he picked up the little princess.

The King screamed in rage, "Guards! Send this…this disgusting thing out of this castle!" The queen held the baby tight to her body away from the guards but it was no use. The guards took the baby and took it out of the castle. They placed the princess near a tiny, poor shack that was barely supporting its weight on the outskirt of the kingdom.

The next morning, an old couple opened the door of the tiny shack, revealing the baby, "Oh, John! Look at this poor thing!" The old woman picked up the crying baby, "John isn't this what we've been praying for all these years?"

John looked at the fragile baby, "Mary, how can we support this baby when we can't even support a goldfish let alone ourselves!" Mary looked into John's eyes longingly and John finally broke, "Oh ok, but if we go bankrupt, we're going to send her right out the door!"

Mary smiled and kissed John on the cheek. The couple with the child in hand, went in the broken down shack.


	2. Chapter 2

Keilani look around the tiny shack, "Mother, I can't seem to find the bucket."

Mary came over to Keilani and looked over the shelves, "Hmm, you're right… John, do you know what happened to the bucket."

John looked over to them and yelled, "It's probably in the well, the usual place Keilani leaves it."

Mary looked in the well just outside of the shack, "Keilani, you need to be more responsible. This is the third time this week."

Keilani's face turned red, "I'm sorry Mother, it's just that, I've been thinking… I'm already fifteen and I don't even know how to read or write, I was wondering if I can… go to school."

Mary's face turned white and she turned to Keilani, "Listen Keilani, we know you love to learn, and we've been trying hard to get enough money for your education, but right now, things just aren't going according to plan. The economy is really low right now and we're barely getting enough money for food. So your father and I would really appreciate it if you would just do all your chores and keep shut of the things you want."

Keilani looked down, "I understand mother… I'll do my best to do the chores."

Mary lifted Keilani's head and smiled, "I love you Keilani, remember that." Keilani smiled and ran to the well to fetch the water.

"Keilani, wake up!" John shook her awake, "You and I are going for a walk."

Keilani lazily stood up, "Where are we going? What's going on?"

John just started running around the shack gathering items, "Mary will tell you when we're at a safer place."

Mary came to Keilani and grabbed her hand, "Mother, what's happening?" Mary just motioned her hand to show her that she needed to be quiet. Keilani immediately stopped talking and followed her parents.

John motioned them to stop and Mary immediately started talking, "Keilani, listen, your father and I wasn't able to pay our taxes this month so the guards are going to take us to jail. Now we love you very much and we want you to be safe." Mary took out a letter from her sack, "Listen very carefully now, there is a big, white, house in the middle of the city, the rich district, I have a friend there, she will help you. Give her this letter and tell her you're from Mary and John."

Keilani hugged her mother and started running to the middle of the city. That was the last time she saw them again.


	3. Chapter 3

"Knock, knock," Keilani stood there on the marble steps of the white house.

The door opened, "What do you wa… who are you?"

Keilani shuffled her feet and replied, "I'm the daughter of John and Mary, I have a letter" She handed the letter to the stout woman.

The woman read the letter, "Those irresponsible people, well anyway, come inside," The woman grabbed Keilani's hands and dragged her inside. The door closed after them and Keilani stood there, gazing at the magnificent carpets and the glittering chandeliers.

Keilani stuttered, "Wow, so um if I may ask…"

"No you may not ask. If you think you're going to stay here for free, you are out of your mind. You're going to work for it since obviously, you don't have money." The woman handed her a simple brown dress and an apron.

Keilani just thought to herself, "Of course I couldn't stay for free… What was I thinking; as if someone would let me just sit around this house like it's my own." She looked up to the woman, "Um, your grace?"

"Address me as "mistress"," The woman turned to her.

Keilani started to talk, "Mistress, where do I um… sleep?"

The mistress asked a servant if there was an extra bed in the servant's quarters. She replied to Keilani, "Looks like you'll be sleeping in the attic. All the beds are full in the quarters; might want to ask the chef for some mouse traps."

Keilani immediately started fretting, "M…mouse traps? Why will I need mouse traps?"

The woman started walking to her room, "Are you stupid? Why else would you need it, to eat? Oh, and I forgot to tell you, your new name is Cinderella."

Keilani started creeping up to the attic, "Wonder why my name's Cinderella. Oh well might as well deal with since the mistress doesn't look like a person who changes her mind."

The attic was smaller than the shack and was full of cobwebs and mice. Keilani tried to be optimistic, "At least there's a bed." Still, no matter what she did, everything still depressed Keilani. Even the bed was just a huge sack full of stiff hay in a corner of the room with a blanket made of several rags.

Keilani looked out the tiny window beside her so called "bed" and fell asleep dreaming of Mary and John.


	4. Chapter 4

"Ring, ring, ringg!" Keilani sprang out of the bed, banging her head on the dirt covered ceiling.

"Ouch…" Keilani looked around the room searching for the source of the ringing. She saw the big clock tower about a mile away from the mansion. "It's six o' clock! I'm late!" Keilani rushed on her uniform and sprinted down the steep steps leading to the servant's quarters.

"You're late," the mistress stared at Keilani and resumed giving out orders to the servants.

Keilani sat on an empty seat, "You new here?" Keilani slightly jumped and looked around to find the person who spoke. "Um, over here!"

Keilani looked besides her and found an average looking girl, "Uh yeah, I came here last night."

"Well then, welcome to hell, this place isn't exactly paradise," the girl and Keilani laughed, "Well anyways, I'm Audrey, you?"

"Kei…" Keilani stopped herself, "I mean my name's Cinderella." Audrey smiled and they returned to hearing the mistress's dull voice.

Keilani started for the kitchen but Audrey grabbed her shoulder, "Which dorm do you live in? We can get together tonight and you know, talk."

Keilani turned around and twiddled with her fingers, "Well actually, the dorms were full so I'm sleeping in the attic."

Audrey gave a sorry look and replied, "Well I can still visit you if you like?"

"I'd love some company besides mice," Keilani smiled and trotted towards the kitchen. As Keilani rubbed the floor, she recognized a letter on a desk right across the hall. She looked right and left for anybody on the hall and secretly skipped to the desk. It was the letter she gave to the mistress. She opened and started skimming through it.

Keilani's heart stopped pumping as she dropped the letter. She was the mistress's step child.


	5. Chapter 5

Keilani regained conscious as she grabbed the letter and read it over to confirm what her eyes just saw. She blinked continuously, trying to erase all her surprise. Keilani gripped the letter harder as she started walking to the mistress's room.

Suddenly she stopped, thinking over her actions. What would she do even if she showed the letter? So what if she was the daughter, the mistress already knows this and she just made her a lowly servant. Keilani loosened her grip as she put the letter back on the desk.

"What are you doing here?" A girl her age was standing at the doorway. "Excuse me; this is my room, get out!"

Keilani quickly walked out, "Who was she? I don't think I ever heard of the mistress having a daughter; she looks so much like her."

The sun shone through the wide window of the kitchen as Keilani was scrubbing the tile floors, "It's noon, I should go to the servant's quarters to get some lunch." She slowly walked there, looking for any other interesting information she should know.

When Keilani arrived, she saw Audrey next to an empty seat, "Hey Keilani, I saved you a seat."

Keilani sat down and started drinking the soggy soup, "Audrey, does the mistress have any daughters?"

Audrey stopped drinking and stared at Keilani with a gaping mouth, "You actually _saw_ them! This is insane! They're usually out shopping for jewelry or something."

"So she does have a daughter," Keilani put down her wooden spoon.

Audrey replied, "Three actually, two of them are exact duplicates of the mistress except younger and uglier. The third one though is her step daughter. Rumor here has it that she's prettier than a red rose in spring."

Keilani nodded and continued slurping away, "Why would the mistress hide the fact that I'm her step daughter? This is all so confusing."

Audrey looked up at the clock and shook Keilani's shoulder, "Lunch break's over, back to work!"

Scrubbing the dishes, Keilani thought over her decision, "Even though the mistress is probably not going to do anything, what have I got to lose? Alright, I'm going to tell her first thing tomorrow after the jobs are assigned."


	6. Chapter 6

"…Audrey, dining room; Cinderella, tapestries. That's all." The mistress closed her black book of schedules as she walked out the door.

"Mistress, hold on right there. I have something I want to talk to you about." Keilani skipped nervously towards her.

"Oh Cinderella, is the place to your liking?" The mistress smiled unpleasantly at Keilani.

Keilani gathered up every bit of courage she had, "Don't act like you don't know anything. I read the letter yesterday."

The mistress's eyes narrowed onto Keilani, "So you know that you're my step daughter; hmm we're going to have to do something about that don't we?"

Keilani put her hands on her hips and stared right back, "That would be the proper thing to do; don't you think _stepmother_?"

The mistress tapped her foot against the marble floor as she started to talk, "Fine, I'll introduce you to the family in the evening; 7 o' clock sharp! Till then, you can at least help cleaning"

The mistress walked away and Keilani was left standing there, not knowing what future she had ahead of her.

Keilani trotted to each tapestry wondering what was going to happen next for the next couple of hours.

"Knock, knock, knock," Keilani waited for the big cedar doors to be opened.

"Ah, Cinderella come in, you're late." The stepmother led Keilani to two girls about her age. One was tall and unreasonably thin; the other was short and a bit chubby on the sides.

The step mother pointed to the tall one of the two, "Cinderella, this is my eldest daughter, Donley." She pointed to the other, "This is my youngest daughter, Maddie."

They both clumsily curtsied and smiled to Keilani.

The stepmother had an evil grin on her face, "Now that you know them, you're going to do their every whim."

Keilani's jaw dropped and she started stuttering, "Bu..but… They're my si..sisters!"

The stepmother just grinned, "When I said I was going to do something about it, I didn't say it was good, did I?"

The whole family started laughing and left the room, leaving Keilani confused at her unpleasant future.


	7. Chapter 7

Sister or Slave?

_Yawn… Ugh, this room is even worse than the attic! At least in the attic I had something called a bed; now all I have is the floor in front of the fireplace. Now I know what you're thinking, "Oh yay, a fireplace! That should keep her warm at night," WRONG. It's not even lighted when I go to sleep all there is is ashes, and when wind blows down the chimney, guess who gets covered in ashes? ME. So yeah, maybe telling the so called "stepmother" that I knew I was her daughter wasn't such a great idea… _

"Cinderella! You dog, get over here! I can't put my dress on!"

"Coming, just give me a second," I rolled my eyes. _Lady Fatso is calling me, she can't even walk for 30 minutes before getting tired!_

Maddie started struggling with the buttons, "Ugh! This worthless village should start making a size 14! They should be more sensitive about beautiful ladies that are a bit larger boned."

_Please, I think her bones are the perfect size, the problem is her stomach. _

_ "_Cinderella!! Put more strength into it! I need this to fit so I can go shopping for more brooches!" Maddie and I strained ourselves until finally, it fit.

"Okay, well if I'm done here "Madam" please excuse me," I walked to the garbage can to see if my sisters left me anything good enough to eat. _Oohh.. I have quite a choice here don't I, yep.. I have let's see, half rotten salmon, or I know, I can eat dry chicken bones! Yum…_ I decided to eat a half eaten orange that didn't particularly taste right, but with my choices, that was the best there was.

"Slave, come here! I believe you forgot to do something," I heard stepmother yelling from the garden.

That's when I remembered, I forgot to get rid of all the caterpillars on the plants… I'm in so much troubled. I ran to stepmother and of course to avoid starvation and severe punishments, I knelt and pleaded for forgiveness, "Please mistress, I had so many other things to do! Such as feeding all you 24 pets, grooming the young madams, washing all the floor, washing the dishes, doing the laundry, I, I just can't do all this in 2 hours mistress," _I hope my acting works._

Stepmother of course didn't fall for it, "Hmm, nice try you mutt, you'll be sleeping outside with stabled duty for 3 months, you understand? Oh and I almost forgot, 10 lashes," stepmother took out that horrid whip and hit me 10 times although; I thought it more as 50. I went to my sisters and they looked at me with the glare that told me, I was in for a bit of trouble.


	8. Chapter 8

The Truth?

I gave up hope of escaping, "What else did I do wrong?" This was basically a daily routine and, I already knew there was no chance I could get away.

Donley smirked, "You forgot to polish my shoes." I just gaped in disbelief because I was pretty sure that polishing her shoes was the first thing I did. Donley took a pair of shoes behind her back and shoved it into me, "They better be done by today or else I'm telling mother, and I don't think she'll be as lenient as she was just now."

I knew she was right so I just nodded and started getting out a rag. My stepmother has done a lot worse to me such as, making me mop up a puddle outside with my _tongue, _pick up all the poop the mice left in the attic, or even making me eat hay as my meals for an entire week!I wasn't that surprised that Donley, or really any of them, would fake that I didn't do a chore. I'm just upset because that just adds another thing to do in my over scheduled day. After this I have to wash the windows, weed the garden, iron and wash all the clothes, clean the floors, dust the furniture, make dinner and dessert, and finally, I get to pick out all the stupid lentils they _always _throw in to annoy me! You have no idea how many burns I get from accidently trying to take them out right after I put out the fire.

"Cinderella! I also need you to make me a dress," Donley shouted. I rolled my eyes and slowly walked to her room.

Now you're probably wondering, "Shouldn't all the other servants be doing this?" I thought that too when I suddenly got a list containing all the things I needed to do. I found out that the mistress fired everyone _including _Audrey. I was pretty upset considering I lost my best and_ only _friend. I asked stepmother why she would fire everyone and she simply just said that she wanted _me _to do all the work for free! I looked around Donley's room and I admit, I'm pretty jealous. I always wished that I would have the perfect room and be treated like a princess. Oh well, it's not like some prince is going to come and claim me as his wife…

I heard a scream from upstairs in the servants' quarters, which was pretty weird since no one lived there. I ran up and found Maddie on the floor hyperventilating. I quickly went to her and exclaimed, "What happened are you okay?" This is kind of mean but the only reason I actually cared was because I was scared of getting in trouble.

Maddie screeched, "Get away from me! I can handle this myself!" She got up from the floor and picked up a broom. Maddie started whacking the entire room breaking items and ruining everything.

"What are you doing? Why are you messing up the room?" I tried to contain my anger towards her from breaking Audrey's favorite flower which stood in the corner. "You're going to get me in trouble! STOP!"

Maddie abruptly spun around and looked me up and down, "Huh, just as I thought. For a moment I thought you were someone important because obviously you're yelling at me, but from what I see, I see a nobody whose parents abandoned her. You're just a worthless slave that doesn't deserve to live, and I don't think people like that should be yelling to me!" She slapped me hard against the face and continued her rampage in the room.

Tears started forming in my eyes as I soaked in the words and the pain. She was right. I _was_ just a worthless slave doing my own families every whim. My parents _did_ abandon me and left me with them, leaving me to endure this humiliation. I ran down the stairs and out of the house. I kept on running for I don't know how long until finally; I sat down on the grass and cried out all the pain and misery I had.

This continued on for a few hours when I felt a slight tap on my left shoulder, "Are you okay?" I looked up and saw the face of the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my life.

I wiped away my tears and stared up at her face in confusion, "Who are you?" The girl smiled and helped me up.


End file.
